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$15 / hour Flagman

Started by Wudman, March 19, 2021, 04:24:07 PM

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Wudman

I came through a workzone the other day and saw a highly productive flagman.  As normal, there was one flagman situated on each end of the workzone flagging traffic.  I wonder if he ever has a headache on Monday morning, calls out sick, or files a workman's comp claim for heat stress?  Looks like he does his job pretty well.....The two communicate; the flag swings up and the light turns green.



 

Self check-out at WalMart and place your own order on a touch screen in fast food joints......and all the free money you can possibly spend.  I'm on board.  ;D ;D......but stocking up on food and ammo......bought a hot tub and new shotgun.  Thanks Joe.  Now I just have to file my taxes and send it back 10 fold.


Wudman  

"You may tear down statues and burn buildings but you can't kill the spirit of patriots and when they've had enough this madness will end."
Charlie Daniels
July 4, 2020 (2 days before his death)

Southside

I could actually tell which day the stimmy checks hit based on excuses and deposits I received....  
Franklin buncher and skidder
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Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
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Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
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mike_belben

 stimmy had harbor freight absolutely swamped today.  I kept a tight grip on my wallet and did some local cash used item business instead. 
Praise The Lord

pigman

I wonder if off camera  there are four workers in a truck with the motor running operating the signal.
Things turn out best for people who make the best of how things turn out.

Firewoodjoe

It kinda scares me the amount of people that I talk to that are ok with this free money. And hope wages go up. Fast food advertises 11-13 an hour now a days. Where do they think all this lonely is going to come from. Our dollar will be worth jack squat before long. 

Larry

Who wants to hold flags when they can get "Money for nothin'......."

Dire Straits - Money For Nothing - YouTube

Larry, learning how to play them drums!
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

Walnut Beast

Quote from: Larry on March 19, 2021, 09:36:57 PM
Who wants to hold flags when they can get "Money for nothin'......."

Dire Straits - Money For Nothing - YouTube

Larry, learning how to play them drums!
Crank that stuff up 🎸 and break the bottle of wine 🍷 out Larry when you have your lady friend over next time 👍

Ianab

Those portable traffic lights have been common here for years, but generally when a piece of road is down to single lane for an extended time, like a washout that's going to take a week to fix etc). But they simply aren't that smart, and will give 1 car the green while 10 are approaching the other end. So they go back to the manual Stop / Go when it's busier or they are actually working so they can Stop both ends if they are moving machinery etc. 

BTW, Minimum wage here is going up to $20 NZ, which is about $14.33 US. The economy hasn't crashed while it was at the current $18:90, I don't expect it to change in April. 
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

SwampDonkey

If your economy is heavily based on the service industry and food processing then yeah I could see it hitting your wallet. But minimum wage doesn't effect a whole lot of other jobs that are well above minimum wage. Up here, even if you're on a production based rate you have to be guaranteed minimum wage, provided you have the hours. If you show up one day and work 8 hours that week, you're not getting a 40 hr x minimum wage cheque. It don't work that way. :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

tamarackman

Replace everybody with machines and wonder why people are clamoring for their $2k checks.

nativewolf

Quote from: Firewoodjoe on March 19, 2021, 09:12:53 PM
It kinda scares me the amount of people that I talk to that are ok with this free money. And hope wages go up. Fast food advertises 11-13 an hour now a days. Where do they think all this lonely is going to come from. Our dollar will be worth jack squat before long.
Everyone's elses currency is worse so by comparison we are doing better than some.
Liking Walnut

nativewolf

Quote from: Ianab on March 19, 2021, 10:17:33 PM
Those portable traffic lights have been common here for years, but generally when a piece of road is down to single lane for an extended time, like a washout that's going to take a week to fix etc). But they simply aren't that smart, and will give 1 car the green while 10 are approaching the other end. So they go back to the manual Stop / Go when it's busier or they are actually working so they can Stop both ends if they are moving machinery etc.

BTW, Minimum wage here is going up to $20 NZ, which is about $14.33 US. The economy hasn't crashed while it was at the current $18:90, I don't expect it to change in April.
We see those lights when the one lane bridges are getting work done for a week at a time.  Last week we were driving through Albemarle County and came on to some roadwork, sure enough..someone holding  a sign, another standing there talking. 2 people to flip a sign. 

Like you I don't see the min wage hurting anything.  I'd like to see people working make some money, my son and I frequently comment on the lack of workers.  Then we see the 2 people required to flip a sign and just scratch our heads.   How did the company even find them?  Much less find more than needed?
Liking Walnut

snowstorm

i know a young fella that held the sign flagging for a couple summers. if they were paving there is a lot of walking and heat. then there is dodging cars that will not stop . he got hit once. several times had his lunch box run over. then there are drivers that yell and scream because they have to wait. night work paving was the best. cooler less traffic and you can see the blue lights coming if the cops are in pursuit. most flaggers here work for a temp agency and yes they have to take a 1 day class. if you see 2 flagging there is a third one to give them brakes. state paving jobs paid more. with a little over time it was not hard to make 1000 a week

Wudman

Quote from: SPDM on March 20, 2021, 07:35:44 AM
Replace everybody with machines and wonder why people are clamoring for their $2k checks.
Around here, people are replaced with machines and computers because they didn't want to work in the first place.  Years ago, following the collapse of the textile industry, my county had an "unemployment" rate of 22%.  We had a candy manufacturer that wanted to occupy one of the shuttered textile buildings.  They held a job fair at the local community college.  They did not receive a single application.  Needless to say, they went elsewhere.  They used the building for storage, but not production.  
If my crews could find them, we could put on 25 truck drivers tomorrow.  My typical company driver takes home north of $1000 per week.  They are pretty good wages for these parts.  Same goes for nurses on a similar pay scale.  We can be having good weeks in the woods and the contracted owner-operator drivers will make it to Thursday morning and disappear.  I have equipment operators that average 4 days per week.  My high production crews now are all Hispanic.  The lack of dependable labor has kept me where I am........and don't even mention the farm side.  On the tree planting side, I have been inspected by the Department of Labor looking for illegal workers.  They will fine us for hiring them, but want to put them on the social welfare rolls instead.  This machine our Government is building can't run much longer.  
Wudman
    
"You may tear down statues and burn buildings but you can't kill the spirit of patriots and when they've had enough this madness will end."
Charlie Daniels
July 4, 2020 (2 days before his death)

HemlockKing

Quote from: Larry on March 19, 2021, 09:36:57 PM
Who wants to hold flags when they can get "Money for nothin'......."

Dire Straits - Money For Nothing - YouTube

Larry, learning how to play them drums!
you know that's REALLY weird you just happened to post that...just 5 minutes ago I put that song on which I thought to myself "haven't heard this one in AGES". 
A1

WV Sawmiller

  You know here in America we call them Red lights even though they are green just as much as they are red. Okay, some people call them Traffic lights or traffic signals. Overseas in the mideast and Southern Africa, and I think Europe but I don't remember, they always just call them Robots.

   I remember road construction crews around Beaufort SC when I was stationed there would have flagmen up and the last car they let through they would hand a piece of pink flagging ribbon. If you were the chosen driver when you got to the next flagman ahead you gave him the ribbon and went on your way. He would let a stream of cars through and give the ribbon to the last in line so that piece of ribbon went back and forth all day. The flagmen did not have radios and that was before cell phone days. I guess if someone drove off with the ribbon they would have created a major traffic jam.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

SawyerTed

One of our first day trips on my motorcycle was on a Sunday afternoon across the Virginia border to Chateau Morrisette winery just off the Blue Ridge Parkway.  My wife did the tasting and I mapped out our next stop which was Foggy Ridge Cidery in Dugspur Virginia (Emily is related to the owners).  Well the GPS directed us off the Parkway onto a Virginia secondary road which really was a wagon path they had put tar and gravel on.  There were no markings on the road and it was narrow enough I suspect two meeting pickup trucks would have had their right tires on the shoulder to pass each other.  

We rode along for three or four miles and topped a ridge and there was a stop light like Wudman's photo. It wasn't quite in the middle of nowhere but I'm pretty sure we could see it off to our right.  We couldn't see down the hill very far either so we didn't know why there was a "stop light".  We stopped because the light was red.  It stayed red what seemed like several long minutes. I was feeling a little silly sitting there with no vehicles behind us or coming from the other direction.  I swear we were beginning to hear banjo music.   Once it changed we rode down one lane to where a culvert had washed out and they were constructing a concrete culvert over a little branch.

We finally made it to the Cidery and had an enjoyable ride home via a different way.
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Dan_Shade

I think I once found the same road in Wisconsin looking for a cheese factory.

I finally gave up and turned around for the interstate 
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lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

mike_belben

I got quite the thrill running a semi on those sort of 'can i make it' mountain roads.  Maybe ill upload some vids.
Praise The Lord

SwampDonkey

I was down in VA a couple times with friends who lived in Blacksburgh. I was amazed at places they put pavement down. Some places were more like drive ways or a ride to the woodlot. :D Musta followed the old cow. You'd fit right in with some roads here up in the higher hills, not a straight road anywhere out in Glassville and Knowlesville, climbing and dipping across gullies. They haul lots of wood down them roads. :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

nativewolf

Quote from: Wudman on March 21, 2021, 11:41:17 AM
Quote from: SPDM on March 20, 2021, 07:35:44 AM
Replace everybody with machines and wonder why people are clamoring for their $2k checks.
Around here, people are replaced with machines and computers because they didn't want to work in the first place.  Years ago, following the collapse of the textile industry, my county had an "unemployment" rate of 22%.  We had a candy manufacturer that wanted to occupy one of the shuttered textile buildings.  They held a job fair at the local community college.  They did not receive a single application.  Needless to say, they went elsewhere.  They used the building for storage, but not production.  
If my crews could find them, we could put on 25 truck drivers tomorrow.  My typical company driver takes home north of $1000 per week.  They are pretty good wages for these parts.  Same goes for nurses on a similar pay scale.  We can be having good weeks in the woods and the contracted owner-operator drivers will make it to Thursday morning and disappear.  I have equipment operators that average 4 days per week.  My high production crews now are all Hispanic.  The lack of dependable labor has kept me where I am........and don't even mention the farm side.  On the tree planting side, I have been inspected by the Department of Labor looking for illegal workers.  They will fine us for hiring them, but want to put them on the social welfare rolls instead.  This machine our Government is building can't run much longer.  
Wudman
   
And the crazy part of all that, agree with all of it and sympathize, is that the "illegal" immigrants just want to work.  I mean what's up with that?, a bunch of people that want to work.  Who would have guessed.  So lets be sure to keep them out.  But if they get in don't let them work but put them on welfare.  
I literally could not sleep due to a lack of truck drivers.  We are so small, just needed 1 driver for 3-5 days a week.  Getting trucking was a life saver.  
OTOH in NC many of the textile replacement jobs were very low wage jobs.  I remember a call center for American Airlines trying to open outside Raleigh in 1987?  They closed it up because they could not find low wage labor (think they were trying to hire at $6-7 which was very very low even for then; I made $20 as a tutor for the forestry dept at NCSU).  That was outside Raleigh, not over in the textile belt where many replacement jobs were in the $5/hour range.  So on the one hand wage growth in lower end jobs has been horrible for 40 years on the other hand the good jobs go wanting.  Small dirtwork guy in the valley can't get his son to work with him, son would rather have his Walmart job (at least he's working) even though he'd make more working with his dad and could own his own business in 10 years.  Truly society has some issues and in my opinion the govt is only one manifestation of these issues.
We watch Elon Musk and SpaceX's work to get to Mars with great interest.  If you could really start from scratch...what would society look like.  If every single person had to add value and serve a purpose. If virtually all of "govt" were automated.  Digital currency, digital health records, etc etc.   I do hope to live long enough to see it start, with my cancer issues I doubt I'll see the million people up there but it will be neat to think about.  
Liking Walnut

moosehunter

I've flagged on construction projects. People/ drivers can be complete a___h____s. There ain't enough money for me to do it full time. I value my life more than that.
mh
"And the days that I keep my gratitude
Higher than my expectations
Well, I have really good days".    Ray Wylie Hubbard

tamarackman

Up here in Canada, farmers have been complaining about the a lack of workers for ever. As a result, they import temporary labour from Central and South America. These workers are more than willing to work 10 hours a day in a hot field picking fruit and vegetable for minimum wage. From there pay the farmer can deduct certain living expenses and the govt kicks in a certain percentage of the cost as well. The workers can be dismissed for any reason making them very compliant.   

Why would any Canadian go work in a hot field for minimum wage when they can make just as much working for McDonald's. As far as I'm concerned, if your business model relies on a workforce that has no other choice but to work at less than their labour's market price, you shouldn't be in business. And I say that as a farmer myself.

Sedgehammer

Quote from: SPDM on March 23, 2021, 07:45:40 AM
As far as I'm concerned, if your business model relies on a workforce that has no other choice but to work at less than their labour's market price, you shouldn't be in business. And I say that as a farmer myself.
Can I get an AMEN!

And I don't want to hear that they just do jobs that xxxx won't do. No, that's not true. Xxxx won't do it for sub pay. You raise pay till you get workers. That's the REAL cost to do that job. If that job can't pay that, then that job doesn't need to exist.
Necessity is the engine of drive

Southside

In too many cases the reality is no wage will encourage far too many to WORK.  They may show up for a paycheck, but actually do the job, and to the best of their ability?  Not everyone, but we have lost personal pride in ones work in this country.  I have heard folks complain it was too nice to work, too cold, too early, too late in the day (right after lunch), didn't sleep last night because the power went out and the fans/radio/lights were all off, so I can't work today - you name it.  

Last fall had a guy show up for a job opening, he was about to run out of his unemployment after extending it three times, he actually told me that he liked the idea of working here because "I won't go home tired".    :o  He was right, he didn't go home tired, the interview wasn't physically taxing at all.  

Just yesterday I was speaking with a neighbor and asked him if he knew of anyone willing to work.  He told me about one guy that lives up the lane from him, but then went on to explain that he is making bank on unemployment, has been for months, somehow refused to go back to work when he was recalled by his former employer, and that "he is hard to get going in the morning", didn't even bother getting the guys phone number.  As far as I am concerned he can go hungry when the unemployment dries up - if it ever does.      
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

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